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Don Basilio
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« on: 13:41:12, 26-07-2008 » |
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Some discussion of this was going on else where, so I thought it might be worthwhile starting a thread here, early though we be. Against that I could queue all afternoon in either mirage-inducing sunshine or the muddy bits out of Dr Zhivago,
I may have to while the time way by fantasing about Omar Sharif looming up out of the drizzle. |
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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John W
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« Reply #1 on: 18:00:11, 26-07-2008 » |
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Getting ahead of ourselves here eh Don?  But, checking the proms booklet, I looked down the list of soloists and I don't know any of them. Paul Groves isn't the Sc unthrope player is he?  Actually I've seen mention of Rosemary Joshua and Robert Gleadow somewhere, sort of names you don't forget, but anyway maybe we could hear from members about the soloists, have they seen them, heard them, on CD etc. John Edited: that poor little town got censored!!! |
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« Last Edit: 19:16:39, 26-07-2008 by John W »
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #2 on: 18:20:27, 26-07-2008 » |
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A marvellous opening post, Don B.. we're off onto strange unrelated territory from Post 01  Starting as we mean to go on! maybe we could hear form members about the soloists, have they seen them, heard them, on CD etc.
Iestyn Davies is a super hardworking countertenor, who has done a lot of work at ENO, WNO and other places - he's also worked a bit at the Globe Theatre. I think the last time I saw him in person was the ENO KING ARTHUR, where he boldly entered into the spirit of the unconventional production. (I have a lot of time for performers who will faithfully put their all into something, regardless of their own personal opinions). |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #3 on: 09:21:01, 27-07-2008 » |
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #4 on: 13:16:53, 27-07-2008 » |
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And the book of words is here:
I do hope audience-members will be issued with one, as was the practice in Handel's day? Jennens even went so far as to have his entire text included in these published librettos - so that audience members could note with regret those passages of his high-flown talent which Handel hadn't seen fit to set And will we get any Organ Concertos to leaven the fare? I doubt it, given the early start time already needed for the work itself... |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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David_Underdown
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« Reply #5 on: 12:03:37, 28-07-2008 » |
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Well, we probably won't get given the book of words, but it will be included in the programme (for £2.50), or if there are lots of words, there will be a separate libretto issued with the programme, with the price bumped up to £3.
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--
David
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #6 on: 12:17:00, 28-07-2008 » |
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I was only being facetious to satirise the self-aggrandisement of Mr Jennens, David 
It was here I came to understand the true spirit of English musical culture, which is bound up in the spirit of English Protestantism. This accounts for the fact than an oratorio attracts the public greatly more than an opera. A further advantage is secured by the feeling among the audience that an evening spent in listening to an oratorio may be regarded as a sort of service, and is almost as good as going to church. Everyone in the audience holds a Handel piano score in the same way one holds a prayer-book in church. These scores are sold at the Box Office in 1/- editions, and are followed most diligently - out of anxiety, it seemed to me, not to miss certain points solemnly enjoyed by the whole audience. For example, at the beginning of the "Hallelujah Chorus" it is considered proper for everyone to rise from his seat. This moment, which probably originated in an expression of enthusiasm, is now carried out at each performance of the Messiah with painfull precision...
Richard Wagner, MY LIFE, speaking of his hearing MESSIAH in London in 1855 at the Philharmonic Society at Exeter Hall
eh? |
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« Last Edit: 12:20:12, 28-07-2008 by Reiner Torheit »
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #7 on: 12:34:41, 28-07-2008 » |
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What Wagner didn't notice, and probably didn't appreciate, was that Exeter Hall was a noted meeting place for large Evangelical rallies - it was a prominent place for antip-slavery meetings before abolition, and for temperance meetings later. I think Dickens has Toby Weller's wife's pet preacher holding forth there.
Messiah at Exeter Hall would probably have just been another evangelical rally.
Pity Wagner didn't give us his impressions of a performance of Semele.
I am sure he was spot on about the link between English protestantism and suspicion of opera. After all proper operas are all written by Italians, who are hopeless papists.
Its a bit of an irony that I understand that audiences at Parsifal at Bayreuth behaved in a very similar manner, although from a socially more influential sphere than Exeter Hall.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #8 on: 13:04:09, 28-07-2008 » |
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Its a bit of an irony that I understand that audiences at Parsifal at Bayreuth behaved in a very similar manner, although from a socially more influential sphere than Exeter Hall.
The biter bit, eh? After all proper operas are all written by Italians, who are hopeless papists. I believe Herr W's envy was directed more at his own immensely-successful fellow-countrymen of semitic persuasion  However, this didn't prevent Mendelssohn writing protestant oratorios that were extremely popular with concert-goers.... |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #9 on: 12:30:35, 16-08-2008 » |
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Bump.
Looks idealy queuing weather. I will really get stuck into Cancer Ward.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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George Garnett
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« Reply #10 on: 12:57:17, 16-08-2008 » |
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All best to Strina and Prommers for tonight's performance and thank you to Don B for pointing the way to the little book of words. Looking forward to it (from the sofa) very much.
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richard barrett
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« Reply #11 on: 13:17:21, 16-08-2008 » |
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All best to Strina and Prommers for tonight's performance and thank you to Don B for pointing the way to the little book of words. Looking forward to it (from the sofa) very much.
Yes indeed. I think it might even be my favourite among Handel's oratorios. |
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #12 on: 13:23:28, 16-08-2008 » |
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I was only being facetious to satirise the self-aggrandisement of Mr Jennens, David
It was here I came to understand the true spirit of English musical culture, which is bound up in the spirit of English Protestantism. This accounts for the fact than an oratorio attracts the public greatly more than an opera. A further advantage is secured by the feeling among the audience that an evening spent in listening to an oratorio may be regarded as a sort of service, and is almost as good as going to church. Everyone in the audience holds a Handel piano score in the same way one holds a prayer-book in church. These scores are sold at the Box Office in 1/- editions, and are followed most diligently - out of anxiety, it seemed to me, not to miss certain points solemnly enjoyed by the whole audience. For example, at the beginning of the "Hallelujah Chorus" it is considered proper for everyone to rise from his seat. This moment, which probably originated in an expression of enthusiasm, is now carried out at each performance of the Messiah with painfull precision...
Richard Wagner, MY LIFE, speaking of his hearing MESSIAH in London in 1855 at the Philharmonic Society at Exeter Hall
eh? I've only just noticed this, but, as I've hinted elsewhere, Herr W's description could equally apply to the pre-Christmas Messiah I attended in provincial New Zealand in the 1990s. Apart from the pre-Hallelujah precision, that is, when indecision seemed to be the order of the day in the antipodes. All best to Strina and Prommers for tonight's performance and thank you to Don B for pointing the way to the little book of words. Looking forward to it (from the sofa) very much.
Seconded from here. |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #13 on: 13:32:04, 16-08-2008 » |
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And my best wishes to Strina and all - I too shall be enjoying it on the sofa, since I'm torn between BELSHAZZAR and FIVE:FIFTEEN this evening at the Riverside... I can catch the oratorio later on the iPlayer, but FIVE-FIFTEEN is a see-it-or-curse-y'self-later. As I have work today that keeps me stuck at the computer until 5pm, I'd never make the Proms queue for Belshazzar - and that's the camel's-back straw And... I'd feel myself a terrible hypocrite for not going to new work when it's been staged just 20 minutes from where I'm staying I hope you all enjoy it! |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Milly Jones
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« Reply #14 on: 21:46:06, 16-08-2008 » |
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All best to Strina and Prommers for tonight's performance and thank you to Don B for pointing the way to the little book of words. Looking forward to it (from the sofa) very much.
Most enjoyable I have to say. Congratulations to all. I've been listening to it in my bedroom whilst doing the ironing. It's so quiet on this board that everybody else must have braved the elements and gone in person to the RAH. |
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We pass this way but once. This is not a rehearsal!
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